This photo was take February 2009 on our way back from Termas de
Puritamas in Chile. That entire area of the Atacama desert is barren,
empty and incapable of sustaining life except in a few spots with
water. But the landscape is spectacular.

While this photo mostly took itself, I'm still going to brag and say how my photo was dubbed "smoking hot" by Huffington Post blogger 2morrowknight?

Lila's fifth birthday was all about reflection. She's just so
beautiful in this photo. I really fall in love with it and her every
time I see it. Her sixth birthday was all about the party. We were
lucky enough to have Uncornered Market and Two Backpackers join us for the celebration. Thanks Dan, Audrey, Aracely and Jason for blowing up all those balloons!!

Photos of the party coming soon (which in Leigh-time means eventually).

Most who know me or read my blog are well aware of my frustrations with social media, marketing and the culture of frenzy surrounding all these issues. Yet, at the same time, I am enamored of social media and the power that lies within.

December 16, 2008

Playing a bit of catch up: It was a long and round about route to Buenos Aires, taking us through Miami, Panama, Bocas, Costa Rica, a short stop in Lima and then finally. Here.

Miami: Quick stop. Just running from gate to gate. We arrived late, so I wasn't sure we'd make our connecting flight. I asked a woman dressed in an official looking blue uniform how to get to our connecting gate.

"Turn left, then right at the sign," but clearly, she was disinterested.

What she failed to mention is that after turning right, you walk straight for ten minutes, then turn again, keep going, then up the stairs, onto a train. Once the train arrives, you take it I-don't-remember-how-many stops to another building where you keep walking until you reach a crowded waiting room in bad need of rennovation.

We made the flight, just barely. But Lila was hungry and we had no time to stop for food or at duty free for a bottle of wine (Sorry, Randall, at least I brought the M&Ms).

Panama: We arrive in the evening. The airport is packed. We wait for visas, wait for customs, wait for luggage, wait for immigration. Wait, while all the while Lila is still hungry and asking for food where there is no food. I'll admit, thought, she was unbelievably mature about it. It did break my heart, though, when she asked "Why, Mama, did you leave the marshmallows and chocolate chips on the airplane." She asked over and over and over. "I would eat them now," she told me. Even thought she hadn't wanted them on the plane.

IT WAS A MISTAKE. I DIDN'T MEAN TO LEAVE THEM IN THE FRONT SEAT POCKET WITH THE SAFETY CARD AND BARF BAG!!!! I'M SORRY.

Fred's car glided by Tocumen exit just as we walked out. Perfect timing. Thank you again to him for driving through the traffic and pouring rain to get us. We stayed up late talking. Then up early, early for Fred and Mel's new baby's naming. Ilana. She is adorable, looks just like Fred and is quite a child. You can tell she wants to be a part of everything.

I'd like to also add a quick thank you to Rochelle and Mark (friends of Fredd and Mel's) who had us over for Thanksgiving dinner. I love the holiday and was sad to miss it. They even had stuffing. Because really, what is Thanksgiving without stuffing?

That's when we learned of the flooding and mudslides in Bocas. "No way you're going," everyone told us. But I still saw updates on Facebook from friends there. They didn't even mention the rain. How bad could it be? We go anyway.

Of course, we almost don't make our flight because the alarm doesn't go off, and we wake up at the exact time we are supposed to be at the airport. Still, we jump around, shower, grab Lila still asleep and run for a cab to the airport making it just in time. Barely. (So now you know you can be late to catch the flight to Bocas and still be first on the flight if you have a child.)

We spent most of our time with Ozzy and Trevor. They lived in the house behind ours last year. Now, they've moved further down the beach. Ozzy cooked her amazing Turkish food. We hung out, talked, drank wine, and gossipped (once again) about everything we'd missed in Bocas over the six months.

A hawk perched on the tree outside the house, calling and singing while all the tomcats of the island prowled around looking for, well, I'm not quite sure what they wanted, because there weren't any eager female cats around.

What is it with all this bird imagery? First the cardinal in Atlanta. A very unexpected Thanksgiving turkey, and now the hawk. If life is art, then someone is trying to tell us something.

I choose to think it's something good.

(More on the rest of the trip to come... specifically with pictures. Some really lovely ones from a cloud forest in Costa Rica, outside of San Ramon.)

March 23, 2008

There's a bottled water here called Boquete Springs or some such thing. The bottle boasts a picture of a mountain with a rainbow in front of it. It caught my eye because of it's high cheese factor, but thought nothing more of it.

Until the bus from David drove into the edge of the city. We saw this.

I wish I had a better picture of it. Jen has one. I'll have to get a better one. One where it's not just one small piece of one rainbow but an entire arc through the sky or even two rainbows.

We stayed an extra day so we could go on a Jeep tour of the mountain with Boquete Mountain Safari Tours lead by the indomitable John. We drove through the town into Volcan Baru National Park to the Sendero de los Quetzeles, going through fields of potatoes, carrots and other vegetables. Oh, and of course, through the coffee plantations Boquete is known for. We visited Cafe Ruiz and passed Mi Jardin es Su Jardin, a private garden opened to the public by the owners. The Rio Caldera runs through this town and there are daily tours that take you to the Caldera hot springs we visited back in January when we first drove up through Chiriqui to Almirante.

John kept us entertained with his endless stories of all sorts of things. A veritable database of information pertaining to all things factual and personal.

Personal? You ask. Read on. I'll get to it.

He told us Kroger's, you know, the giant supermarket chain is planning to buy it's vegetables from Boquete. He told us about coffee that costs $500 a pound. Black Gold! He took us to Devil's Peak, where it is always cloudy because it's so high up in the mountains. He pointed out the hills where supposedly vast amounts of marijuana grow. He showed us how he stands on the back of the Jeep drags his feet on the ground while in motion and apparently can do so at speeds of 40 miles an hour. He used to live in Tennessee where he was married and had a kid but found out the kid wasn't his. There were also two women who joined us on the tour who he said were training to be guides. Maybe. Perhaps. And I'm pretty sure one of them is dating Raoul, the driver, also John's brother, from another father. Their mother practices herbal medicine, and he lived in Nashville the last 18 years. He stopped the Jeep and pulled a couple Valerian plants for me. They're known to be a nervine tonic and are also found in the United States and many other areas. And finally, he picked a couple of Angel Trumpet flowers, explaining how if you make them into a tea, you can get high, baby, yeah, real high.

And by the end of the day, our heads were spinning with information. I looked up the Angel Trumpet and it is indeed a very powerful hallucinogenic. In fact, the entire plant, leaves, flower, stem and roots, is highly poisonous.

The vervain he gave me, however, is nothing like any form of vervain I've ever seen before. Not in the northeast US woodlands and not in any field guide of seen of plants, including a Panamanian guide to plants Noah found at STRI.

Who knows how much he told us is true? Who cares? We were infinitely entertained the entire five hours of this trip, and at the end, he treated us all to strawberry milkshakes and ice cream at a Fresas Cafe.

After Boquete, Jen and I took a bus to Panama City where we had one full lovely day together to walk around. We visited Casco Viejo and all the museums around Plaza de la Independencia. The Emerald Museum. The Interoceanic Museum and the Cathedral. We then walked from there up Avenida Central to Calidonia.

This is the exact walk Noah and I took our first day exploring Panama. Of course, then, we were lost and had no idea where we were going or what we were doing. I think we were also half asleep from traveling and dazed by suddenly landing in a new country, another new country.

Then Jen went to the airport, and Melissa drove me to Allbrook bus station (and may I add, she got me there faster and through areas of the city I bet most cab drivers don't know) where I made it just in time to make the bus nocturno back to Bocas.